Baahubali bomb, multicolour shots selling like hot cakes

Roughly an hour-drive from Chandigarh is Kurali town known for the biggest wholesale market of firecrackers in North India. Just a week prior to Diwali, shopkeepers set up stalls on Kurali-Morinda Highway and National Highway-21 to greet buyers not only from the Tricity, but from various regions of the adjoining states.

At least 16 to 17 wholesalers with warehouses in the town are the biggest suppliers for firecrackers for cities like Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ludhiana, Jalandhar as well as various regions of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Almost every shopkeeper and small road-side stall owner is hopeful for doing a profitable business this year by selling firecrackers. Many sellers confirmed that people started visiting their shop since Navratris to hoard firecrackers for celebrating Diwali. Sellers assured that all items being sold were government approved green (eco-friendly) crackers. In compliance with the law, these green firecrackers do not have banned chemicals like barium salts, they said. Firecrackers, which were popularly known as ‘larriyan’ in the local language, were no longer being sold, said sellers.

Every seller in Mohali and Chandigarh, who got a firecracker shop after obtaining temporary licence, sourced firecrackers from Kurali. There are many Diwali enthusiasts, who prefer coming to Kurali, to buy their favourite “patakhe” from the source itself.

“Leaving bulk orders from shops across cities and states, an average family man would come to buy crackers with spending budget between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000,” shared Himanshu,” one of the firecracker sellers in Kurali. “A few customers even spend from Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 for Diwali alone,” he said.

In demand

Baahubali bomb and 50-in-one or 100-in-one shots are in demand this year. There’s already shortage of Baahubali bombs which make huge sound on bursting. Its look-alikes are being sold in the market. Furthermore, many families with children between age of five to 16, prefer safer and hot selling firecrackers like anaar, chakri and fuljhari (sparkler). Multicolour shots that burst in air like 240-in-one, 500-in-one and 2,000-in-one, whose price goes as high as Rs 3,000 to Rs 12, 000, has many few takers, but give a better profit margin to sellers.

Many are aware of ever-popular Cock brand (Murga Chaap) when shopping for crackers but do not know that the original brand is Sri Kaliswari Fireworks. Similarly, there are other popular brands selling like hotcakes such as Vadivel Fireworks, Standard Fireworks, Sonny Fireworks, PPK’S and Sri Krishan Fireworks and what not!

History of business

A third-generation of firecrackers wholesaler and owner of Hindustan General Store (Fireworks Store), Ram Singla, shared, “Each year the firecracker order remains more or less the same around Rs 1 crore which comes all the way from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. While the business is looking good this year, but the profit or loss can only be predicted after Diwali. It has been rough couple of years in the past owing to ban on certain chemicals in firecrackers, followed by the onset of the Covid pandemic. In 2023, the prices of firecrackers went up. There was shortage in demand due to limited hour window of bursting firecrackers and other inevitable situations like floods in Himachal Pradesh.”

Singla’s family is a licensed firecracker wholesaler since 1960. He shared how until 1990, there were only five to six families involved in this annual business of firecrackers, but now their number has soared to 16 wholesalers.

Pankaj Aggarwal, another licensed wholesaler, ventured into the fireworks business by setting up a temporary shop for a week ahead of Diwali. He used to buy firecrackers from other wholesalers. Just after a couple of years, he managed to get a licence and now owns two firecracker shops on the Kurali-Morinda highway giving easy excess to buyers. Almost all old firecracker wholesalers have warehouses on the Badali road in Kurali. It really sums up how a week’s business can earn you profits to sustain for a year or lose all your savings.